Pennsylvania legislators push plans for school consolidation

Pennsylvania legislators push plans for school consolidation

It's a question educators, legislators and taxpayers have been asking for years: Does Pennsylvania have too many school
districts?

Across the state, there are 500 school districts, ranging in size from mammoth Philadelphia, with about 166,000 students,
to one-building rural schools with fewer than 300 in kindergarten through 12th grade.

The patchwork of districts makes little sense to Rep. Tim Mahoney, D-South Union. He is pushing a plan that would require
Fayette County's six districts to share a centralized administration, with one countywide school board and one superintendent,
a move he said would cut costs.

"One bus contract," he explained. "One food contract. You buy in bulk. If you do it this way, you still have the identities
of the schools, like they're still six school districts. "

Mahoney has secured a state grant to look at the potential impact of his plan. If the study, due this summer, shows potential
savings and educational benefits, he plans to place administrative consolidation on the ballot as a referendum.

We don't agree with the last line of the piece concerning Rep. Mahoney's ballot initiative. Rep. Mahoney has given
every indication he wants a county-wide school not just for purposes of savings on Administrative costs. He also wants
"to change" the way we do education. His former legislation included language concerning "uniform curriculum."

We think Rep. Mahoney's ballot question will be broad to apply to consolidating entire services and districts and for
taxation purposes, as his previous legislation noted.

His legislation to date has not been exclusive to "Administration"

There are other areas of Rep. Mahoney's former legislation we will delve into, including the creating the potential of
7 sub-districts within the larger unified district, and duties of one Superintendent for all 7 school districts.

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